Christmas Craft Fever

I have been very busy lately making things for the Christmas Craft shows that are coming up.. The first show I'm doing is tomorrow. Here are some of the things that I am going to be selling

I made a candy cane snuggle pod. I think it would look so cute on a little one for Christmas.

I've been making tons of Crayon Rolls

My new favorite creation is these Tic Tac Toe games for kids....or for adults if they are bored too.

The games are enclosed in a plastic pocket, so everything is contained neatly, and you can take it along where ever you want.

All the pieces are hand stitched felt. The game board itself is felt as well so they stay where you put them. So fun, if I do say so myself. I will be selling the games for $15, so if you are interested in one for a Christmas gift or something just let me know. They are a little time consuming to make with all the hand stitching so the sooner the better :)

I have a good reason for not posting for more than a month now. *wink, wink* I am 17 weeks pregnant. Due the end of April. So that has put a little wrench in my energy and creativity levels. First trimester is out of the way and I'm feeling much better now, so hopefully I will be back to my regular crafty self.

Le Grand Crayon Roll

A friend of mine has a little boy in Parent Pre-school. They had been asked to bring 24 crayons to class to work with. The standard crayon rolls I make have 16 crayons in them, so she asked me if I could make her one that held 24. With a few measurements and altering of the pattern, I made up these cute crayon rolls for her and a couple other ladies in the class.
I really like the material I used on the top one. It's actually material that I bought for my older daughter's layered skirt. Which I have yet to do lol. Add it to the list eh!

I found some fun boy themed material and made up this one for her son. I didn't want to use ribbon for the closure, because i think it's a little too girly, so I used some elastic and a button. I think it turned out really well, don't you?

I will be adding these to my shop and they can be purchased for $15, that includes crayons.

New Fall Colors

I have some new colors for Snuggle Pods that I was able to find, however they aren't colors I can normally get so these are while supplies last :) If you would like a snuggle pod in one of these colors for your little one I wouldn't wait.

So Precious

I had to share these pictures that were taken by Rebecca Cooper using one of my snuggle pods. The baby is just a newborn so the standard size is a little big on her, but I think she doesn't mind one bit.
Makes me wish there was one big enough for me to curl up in :)

Thanks for taking these Rebecca :)

Sew Happy and More!!

One of my cousins asked me to make her some crayon rolls for her nieces. So I pulled out my stuff and whipped these ones up. They are so fun, and have princess crayons too :)

This same cousin also happens to be pregnant, but not for much longer ;) So I made her one of my snuggle pods to swaddle her new little one in. Nothing could be better, they are so soft and totally washable.

I made two of the blue patterned crayon roll so I have an extra one that is for sale if anyone is interested. They are $10 ea. Send me an email if you are interested.

Ruffle Skirt

Yesterday was a holiday and my hubby didn't have to work, yay! Normally we would do something as a family outdoors, however, it was rainy :( So I decided to work on a project that I have been thinking about for a while now. I pulled out my fabric and made a cute ruffle skirt for my 4 year old using this tutorial It worked out quite well allthough I think I will make a few changes to the sizes of material when I make one for my older daughter.

I wanted the under ruffle to show a little more so I think I will make those pieces a little longer.

I added some decorative stitching and some cute ricrac to the ends to give it a little something extra. :)

I hope you like it and if you try this skirt I would love to see your version.

Little Hoot

I have a friend who likes owls. We were going to get together and so I thought I would make her a little something special. You see, she lives very far away, so I thought she would like a little owl to keep her company :) He was fairly easy to make and so cute if I say so myself.
After I made him however, my girls started asking me if I could make them all sorts of little animals. I can tell it's going to be a long summer. LOL

Happy Canada Day

Sorry this post is a little late....The celebrations around July 1st are rather time consuming. I hope you all had a splendid holiday, and hopefully some good BBQ's.
I took a picture of the gigantic flag at our town hall while we were going on a wagon ride.

I made some of these flowers to decorate the food tables with. I liked the way they turned out. My husband asked if they were fireworks.....I guess that could work too ;)

I made this wood flag at a class a friend did. I'm ashamed to admit I finished it the night before the first :o We couldn't find a compressor to nail the pieces on with the brad nailer. So my hubby suggested just using wood glue, and that's what we did.

I have some fun crocheting projects I'm working on.....I'll be sharing them later on this week.

Dragonfly

I just can't stop making these adorable dragonfly bows. I think they are so cute and I think I may even like them better than the butterflies.......Hmmm, maybe I better make some more butterflies and then decide ;) They are very cute don't you think??? Now I just need some more ribbon to make more cute bows :)

Garden Party

I decided to do a garden party theme for my daughter's party. Here are some of the pictures from her day. For the decorations I made some balloon flowers and hung them from the ceiling in the living room and dining room. I also decorated with butterflies on the patio door and pendant light above our table.

For the craft we put together these fun little flower pens.

I just wrapped floral tape around the pen and the stem of the silk flower. The girls loved them.

I made these little bug clippies to go in the treat bags for each girl.

I found these fun felt house treat bags at the dollar store and filled them with the goodies. As well each girl took a pinwheel home too.
I finally decided on a ladybug cake, and had a friend help me make up the icing. (I've never done red before) I think it turned out quite cute. The spots are junior mints, the eyes are green gobstoppers, the legs and antennae are black nibs cut in half and I used oreo crumbs over chocolate icing for the head and body to make it black.

One of the girls commented that it was the best birthday party she had ever been to, so I think it was a hit :)

Canada Day Bows

I sat down to make some bows to give the girls who are coming to Sadie's party, and needless to say I didn't really get them done. I was distracted by making these. I haven't put them on the alligator clip yet because I didn't have any. I had to go to a friends to get some from her stash. Thanks Heather :) First I made these
And Then I made these to go in my girls hair for the Canada Day festivities. The 'blue ribbon' looking ones happened by total accident, I was going for a flower looking bow and this is what I ended up with. However, I totally think they are cute so it was a good accident. :)

Now I have to actually get the bows done I was going to do. I'm going to attempt some bugs, I'll show you how they turn out when i'm done.

Feelin a Little Patriotic

It's starting to creep up on me. Canada Day, that is. In the small town in which I live, this day is a 'big deal'. We have tons of community stuff going on around that day. I'm not going to bore you with the list of events. My kids favorite though is the parade. I bought a new countryfied (is that even a word?) hat to wear at said parade. I love having a little fun once in a while ;)

I think that I was feeling a little of the patriotic vibe when I made this card. It however is a south of the border vibe slightly based on the colors. Nonetheless, it still made me start to anticipate the coming events.

Flowers on the Brain

It is my oldest daughter's 7th birthday on June 13th. I have decided to go with a garden party theme. Now I'm trying to think of all the details to make it the "perfect" birthday party. Cuz that's what we do right? Go all super mom crazy trying to throw our kids the best birthday's ever.......Or maybe this is just me, hmmm. Anyways, it should be fun and different from princesses, which I think I will just have to die rather than throw another princess party. She's turning 7, she should be over princesses by now right? I sure hope so. I will post some pictures of some of the decorations after the party. In the mean time, I am open to any suggestions you may have regarding the decorations, or games and all that good stuff. ;)
For now I leave you with a flowery card. And I do hope you have a wonderful day.

Peace........

........This is something that is hard to come by at the moment, LOL. Summer is almost here, it stays lighter much later and it seems the kids will never go to sleep at night. Which makes it harder for me to find time to create. On the flip side it is beautiful outside so if they will play outside "nicely" without tormenting each other too much, I should be able to squeeze some creative time in somewhere. It was by such means that I was able to create this card the other day. I hope you enjoy it and don't have to feel the sorrow of losing someone.

If however you have lost someone dear to you then I hope someone will make you a special card from their heart, to help ease that pain.

Spring has Sprung

And with spring comes new babies. I have so many friends who are pregnant right now or have just had a beautiful little baby. I made this set as a gift for one of my good friends, who just had an adorable little girl last week.

The butterfly is one of the patterns out of the Amy Butler sewing book I reviewed in this post. It came out ok I thought. I'm pretty sure subsequent butterflies will be a little more polished though. I added bells in each of the wings so it makes some fun noise too. It's fun trying out new patterns, I really enjoyed it. I'm trying to get up the courage to try one of the bags. :)

Ribbons and Bows

A friend invited me over the other day to make bows. I was excited because I have looked at lots of stuff on the internet about how to make your own bows, however I'm a visual learner and it helps me out a ton to see things done right in front of me. It was lots of fun to get out and visit with other women, while making some cute little bows for my girls hair. Here is what I got accomplished.

My oldest is really into blue right now, so I thought these would be very fitting for her. No girly pink, but a pattern that still gives it femininity.

Then I had some fun creating this cute butterfly. It had a learning curve that took a little time to figure out, but once I got that it wasn't so bad. I really wanna make some adorable little ladybugs, but I need to source out some red ribbon with black polka dots. Anyone have any suggestions of online sources for some inexpensive ribbon?

Pajamas Take Two

I made a set of pajamas for my son for Christmas. It was pretty much the first time working with children's clothes. I'm not sure if you remember the lesson I learned with pattern matching. It was funny to me when it happened. I'm so used to trying to get the most use out of a sheet of paper with as little waste as possible. Well when I was cutting out the material I adopted the same theory. Little did I know that you needed to watch the pattern of the images on the material and keep them going the same way.



I give you Exhibit A - Note how some of the penguins are upside down and others are upright. Hahahaha. I know what you are thinking. I totally should have known better. Ah Well. That's what I have to say. It's not like my son will care one bit, right?

I made another pair for him and this is how they turned out. I will have you note that I did everything right this time. :) The stripes are going the same way. I must be getting the hang of sewing clothing Eh! Isn't he just a little cutie. He points to each ball saying "see ball?" over and over.

Similar......Yet Different

Spring has sprung around here for me and I couldn't be more pleased. I have planted my seedlings to start growing indoors, and I can't wait to get my garden planted outside. I put together two cards that were very bright and fun. They use similar concepts and paper but are different. I like doing this sometimes because it's nice for my brain to only have to come up with one type of card and then tweak it a little so that it's different. Thinking of You

and a Thank you card.

I can't wait to sample some real cherries soon. Delish!

Birthday gift for a Princess

My niece had a birthday a little while back, and I made her a crayon roll to go with a coloring book. I've been really trying hard to make handmade gifts for birthday parties this year. I guess that the coloring book isn't handmade, but we will just look the other way on that one, because there is no way any child would want to color in my drawings lol. I found some really cute princess crayons that I thought would be very fitting for a little princess to color with as well.
I saw a crayon roll made by someone else on the web, forgive me I can't remember who :( But she hid the seam lines and I just love the way it looks. So shamelessly I copied, I admit it. Genius whoever she is cuz it makes it look so finished and beautiful.

I love making these, they are so fun, and easy too. Perfect to take with you anywhere to keep little hands busy.

Baby Legs Tutorial

I know there are lots of tutorials out there on the web for these, but I thought I would just add mine to the mix lol. I am one who is all about simplicity, so mine is a little different from the one you find on flickr. So here goes...Find a sock that is for an adult and comes to just below the knee. I got these at AE on clearance for $2.50 nice eh! Cut off the toe portion and the heel like in the picture.

You should then have two pieces that look like this.

Turn the smaller piece wrong sides together to form the cuff.

Insert that piece into the larger tube with right sides together. (see picture)
Pin in a few places around to hold things together properly.

Sew around those edges using an edge finishing stitch.

Pull the sock right side out and you are done. Voila! Easy Peasy, just what I like.

Here's a shot of Ellie wearing them, don't they look cute. My girls wear them when they are playing dress up, but want to keep their legs warm as well. They also wear them under their nightgowns for the same purpose.

I made another pair that I stuck on Vanden, he thought they were great, Dad however, didn't think they were that awesome :)

I however think they accentuate his chubby little thighs quite perfectly. ;)